Europe, China and Southeast Asia turned the fortunes of engineering exports that returned a growth of 23.7% year-on-year growth in November to $ 11.01 billion. Even the US, the sector’s biggest market, was in the green, expanding at 11.4% to $ 1.57 billion after plunging 14.5% in October.
In terms of growth Sri Lanka topped with exports growing at 273% to $ 320 million, followed by Vietnam where shipments expanded 143% to $ 251 million.
Exports to Spain were up 96.2% to $ 163 million, France was up 92.3% to $ 240 million, China 76.1% to $ 330 million, Italy 68.9% to $ 371 million, UK 68.1% to 433 million and Netherlands 39.9% to 210 million.
Other key markets like Malaysia grew 37.8% to $ 174 million, Korea 33,5% to $ 276 million and Germany 32.5% to $ 414 million.
Market-Specific Volatility
The biggest market in engineering, the US was the biggest buyer in all key product categories like industrial machinery, products of iron and steel, auto components and non-terrous metals.
The biggest buyer of iron and steel was Italy while the biggest buys of China were industrial machinery and non-ferrous metals. Germany was prominent in auto parts and aircraft and space craft, and electrical machinery and components. The UK bought products of iron and steel, electrical machinery, aircraft and spacecraft. Korea and Vietnam were prominent in non-ferrous metals. Korea also bought a substantial amount of electrical machinery.
The growth achieved by engineering exports was greater than that of total merchandise exports which recorded a growth of only 19.4 % in November. This raised the share of the engineering sector in overall exports to 28.88%.
Policy and Resilience
This result is a testament to the relentless effort of the exporting community which quickly recovered from the 17 % decline in engineering exports in October 2025, chairman of Engineering Export Promotion Council Pankaj Chadha said.
The growth story of engineering exports reflects the positive trend in global trade. As per the recently published UNCTAD Trade Update, global trade in goods and services continued to grow through the second half of 2025 and is expected to cross $ 35 trillion for the first time recording a growth of around 7% from 2024. In this journey, the support of the Government of India remains critical, Chadha said and sought quick implementation of Export Promotion Mission (EPM) to provide respite to the exporters.
